Looking back: Chico Enterprise-Record names noteworthy news of 2012

The year coming to an end was full of joy and tragedy, as each year is. It is good to look back as 2012 closes to see some of the things that happened locally. Good to remember once more, before life starts to fill the year ahead.

This isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of what happened this year, but we're pretty sure there are some things here that you hadn't remembered.

Going to the polls

It was an election year, with voters going to the polls in June and November.

In the June election, Butte County's medical marijuana growing ordinance was overturned, and by year's end nothing had been drafted to replace it.

Chico voters put three political rookies on the City Council in November, retaining the 5-2 liberal/conservative split that had existed before. And while a modification of the telephone user tax was rejected, a $78 million bond measure for Chico schools was approved.

In Oroville, three incumbents were returned to the City Council in November, but in the Feather River Recreation and Park District, three incumbents were turned out.

Republicans maintained their grip on north-state legislative and congressional seats, although there was a bit of a shuffle that raised some eyebrows as it seemed orchestrated.

It began when Wally Herger, R-Chico, announced his retirement after 26 years in Congress, endorsing state Sen. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, as his replacement. At the end of the legislative session, LaMalfa resigned his Senate seat, setting up a special election that former Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, had already been preparing for after not seeking re-election in his district.

Former state Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, jumped into the congressional race, and Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Loma Rica, who had already announced he was seeking re-election, decided to seek the Senate seat too.

Aanestad was smeared by a LaMalfa staffer on a deceptive website, which triggered a lawsuit that Aanestad dropped after a public apology. Logue's Senate bid was derailed when treatment for gout damaged his kidneys.

LaMalfa ended up winning Herger's seat, but Nielsen was unable to get the 50 percent-plus-one needed to win Lamalfa's seat outright. He faces a runoff in January.

North state burns

After a couple of years in which wildfires weren't especially bad, 2012 saw big chunks of Northern California go up in flames. At one point, a dozen fires were burning in the north state in August and September, with one of them in far Modoc County burning more than 300,000 acres. The fast-moving Ponderosa Fire near Manton took out dozens of homes and the Chips Fire seemed to burn forever up between Highway 70 and Lake Almanor.

The Chips Fire produced one feel-good moment, when a burned and apparently orphaned bobcat kitten attached herself to a group of firefighters. They took her on, named her Chips and sent her to wildlife rehabilitation experts, where she has thrived. At last report, they were trying to make her a little meaner, so she will be able to survive in the wild.

In a related story, residents in many rural areas of California got the first of what will be annual bills for $150 per residence to pay for fire protection.

The billing was pretty much a mess, with thousands of people initially getting bills for $0. Others got two bills, as there was no list of residences that would be liable for the charge.

Recreation district squabbles continue

The Feather River Recreation and Park District November election mentioned above was just a reflection of the bitter divisiveness that continued swirling around the Oroville-area district in 2012.

The three incumbents who lost — TJ Jensen, Chris Poblano and John Allen — had all been targets of a recall earlier in the year that failed to gain enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Two of the winners in the election — Marcia Carter and Victoria Coots — were among the leaders of the failed recall.

Carter and Coots are among 11 defendants in a defamation lawsuit filed in October by former director Bob Sharkey, who claims he was hounded out of office by them and the others.

Labor Day tragedy

It's been a miracle that no one had died on the Labor Day float that draws thousands of young people — many of them drunk — to the Sacramento River each year. This year, our luck ran out.

The event was the bacchanal it always is, but when it was done, a tuber who'd come up from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo for the event was missing.

After a week's search in Chico and along the river, the body of Brett Olson, 20, of Lafayette, was sighted floating in the river by a fisherman. An autopsy found he had drowned, and had been drinking.

Zingg's had enough

In mid-November, Chico State University President Paul Zingg, clearly angry over a series of drinking abuses and hazing incidents involving the campus Greek community, suspended all fraternity and sorority activities for the remainder of the year.

The final blow for Zingg had been the alcohol overdose of Mason Sumnicht, who had suffered brain damage after choking on his vomit 11 days earlier, after drinking 21 shots of alcohol to mark his 21st birthday with members of the fraternity he was pledging.

Sumnicht, a San Diego native, died that same day. He was the fifth alcohol-related student death in five months.

Bidwell Mansion strangeness

Some strange things happened this year surrounding Bidwell Mansion. The home of Chico's founders was marked for closure in spring, one of 70 to be shut down to save $22 million and balance State Parks' budget.

But the Bidwell Mansion Community Project raised enough money — $140,000 — to keep the mansion open for a couple of years. The same thing happened statewide, and only two parks ended up being shuttered.

But then, shortly after the deadline for raising the funds, it was discovered that State Parks had $54 million squirreled away in accounts in Sacramento, for reasons that still haven't been adequately explained.

And in the midst of all this, the Bidwell Mansion Association, which had supported educational activities at the site since 1956, had its "cooperating agreement" canceled by State Parks in a dispute over its nonprofit status.

The association claims that problem had been resolved before State Parks' action, but it took intervention by Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Loma Rica, to get the matter resolved.

Plastic bag ban in Chico

Plastic bags nearly got bagged by the Chico City Council this year. The council did at least signal its intentions with a 5-2 vote in September to outlaw the bags in grocery and drug stores.

However, the vote included a provision to wait and see if a bill that would allow stores to charge for plastic (and paper) bags was signed by the governor. That would accomplish the goal of encouraging reusable bags, it was thought.

Well, the governor signed the bill, and the council is scheduled to take formal action on some version of the ban this week.

Public official departures

2012 was a year of retirements and abrupt departures of political figures. In addition to Congressman Wally Herger, Paradise Supervisor Kim Yamaguchi didn't seek re-election after 12 years in office. He was replaced in the November election by Doug Teeter.

The cities of Chico and Oroville and the town of Paradise all lost their chief administrators. Chico City Manager Dave Burkland retired at the end of August and Paradise Town Manager Chuck Rough retired at the end of the year ... for the second time. Oroville City Administrator G. Harold Duffy quit abruptly in July to take a similar position in Compton.

Assistant Town Manager Lauren Gill will be taking Rough's place in Paradise. Chico went with Brian Nakamura, Hemet's former city manager, while Oroville picked as interim administrator Peter Cosentini, who is also, curiously, from Hemet.

Chico also got a new police chief when Mike Maloney retired. He was replaced with Kirk Trostle, who used to be the police chief in Oroville not so long ago.

Fire station closed due to deficit

Local government budget woes continued with layoffs and vacant positions being left unfilled. But the strangest bit of budgetary news came at the end of April when the city of Chico discovered it was in the hole.

Department heads were given targets for reductions, and Fire Chief Jim Beery responded by closing Fire Station 5, located at the entrance to upper Bidwell Park, for the rest of the fiscal year.

Anger over the closure sparked protests, complaints and at least one City Council candidacy. And suddenly at the start of June, there was enough money to reopen the place.

The surprise shone new light on the fact that councilors aren't getting monthly finance reports, though required in the city charter.

That became a council campaign issue, but the three people least concerned with the lack of reports were all elected.

Unusual deaths

A number of out-of-the-ordinary deaths were in the news in 2012, in addition to the Labor Day drowning and the string of alcohol deaths that prompted Chico State President Paul Zingg to clamp down on the school's fraternities and sororities.

They included:

On April 22, Mitch Padula, 28, of Chico, was hiking above Feather Falls with friends. He stopped to dip a shirt into the water, slipped into the river and was swept over the edge. His body is yet to be found.

On July 18, Chico cardiologist Dr. James Yhip, 46, and his wife, nurse Edelyn Yhip, 43, were arrested on murder and child endangerment charges in the April 19 death of their 2-year-old adopted son Benjamin. They have pleaded not guilty and a trial has been set for February.

On July 27, skeletal remains were found in a burn pile at Ord Bend Park. On Oct. 10, they were identified as those of Heidi Ring, a Chico woman who had gone missing seven years earlier. Ironically, a road show for missing people had stopped in Chico in September to bring attention to Ring's case.

On Sept. 11, after a standoff that lasted most of the day, Wayne Renner, 49, exchanged gunfire with police who had surrounded his Tara Terrace apartment off Burnap Avenue in north Chico. Renner was hit twice and killed.

On Oct. 6, Kenneth Cooper, 23, of Fairfield, drowned in the Feather River when the sandbar he was fishing on gave way beneath him and he was swept downstream. About three miles away and three hours later, two people died in a pond in the Oroville Wildlife Area. Jesus Rojas, 54, of Live Oak, died trying unsuccessfully to rescue his 2-year-old son Manuel Rojas-Hernandez, who had fallen out of an inflatable boat.

On Oct. 24, the bodies of two homeless people were found in lower Bidwell Park in Chico, just upstream from the One-Mile. Darwin Rinner, 33, and Christine Lawing, 51, had apparently burned to death overnight, but the details of how it happened remained unclear at year's end.

Business news

On the business front in 2012, the north state was left wondering whether Gov. Brown wanted to hear from it or not, following a visit by California Labor Commissioner Julie Su in summer.

At a meeting in a packed Chico City Council Chambers, Su listened to a handful of complaints about the state's business climate, as that was all that was possible in the time allotted.

Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Loma Rica, later heard from Brown that he'd like to hear from some of those who didn't get to speak. A meeting was set up, and rescheduled, and rescheduled, and rescheduled, and rescheduled, and rescheduled. It's now supposed to happen on Jan. 9.

In other business news, Marshalls and Petco opened in Oroville, but the Pacific Oroville Power, Inc., cogeneration power plant's closure was reported.

Dick's Sporting Goods announced it would be coming to the Chico Mall, and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. said it would be opening a brewery in North Carolina.

And venerable Oroville restaurant Tong Fong Low celebrated its 100th birthday. It has another restaurant in Chico these days.

All this and more

Here are some other things that happened this year:

On Thanksgiving morning, a fire broke out in the Robert B. Robie Power Plant, at the western outlet of the Thermalito Forebay. The fire in an underground level of the plant was extinguished in three days, far more quickly than initially expected. But the damage is such that fire investigators haven't even been able to access the building to start to determine the cause.

Scotty's Boat Landing faced danger of closure this year when operator John Scott absorbed some of his brother's debts when he died. Sacramento River rescue personnel — who rely on the river access — and others undertook some fundraising to pay off the debts and kept Scotty's open.

Butte County completed work on updating its General Plan, a document that was hopelessly out of date when the process began 6 and a half years ago. The new planning guide is supposed to last until 2030.